If Oscar Tshiebwe understands one thing as a true freshman and that’s to stick to what he does well.
Tshiebwe was the star of the first half on the road against Kansas, essentially keeping West Virginia afloat as seemingly the rest of the roster struggled. The results were 17 points and 17 rebounds, the third time this season that he has recorded at least those totals in a single outing in 13 games.
That puts Tshiebwe in rare company when it comes to basketball players at West Virginia, considering the last time a player did that three times in the same season was Mo Robinson in the 1977-78 campaign. That’s over 40-years of basketball in Morgantown.
Think about that for a second. Devin Williams and Kevin Jones only accomplished that feat once in their careers, while the same can be said for Calvin Bowman and Marcus Goree. The program didn’t even have a single player hit that mark once in the entire decade of the 1980’s.
Want to find a player that has done it four times? Well, you’d have to go back to 1974 when Warren Baker had a stretch of five games where he accounted for at least 17 points and 17 rebounds.
So, it’s an impressive result for anybody, especially a true freshman. And is only telling of the potential that Tshiebwe has as he continues to develop at the college level.
Through 13 games, Tshiebwe is narrowly missing out on averaging a double-double at 12.2 points and 9.4 rebounds per game and has accomplished the feat in six contests to date. That’s six more than any other true freshman across the landscape of the Big 12 Conference for reference sake.
Tshiebwe is certainly living up to the hype when it comes to being only the second McDonald’s All-American to play for West Virginia since the inception of the game.
Foul trouble has limited him at times, but what the Congo native has shown is an understanding of what he does well and how to execute it on the floor.
“The beautiful thing about Oscar is Oscar is Oscar. He doesn’t try to be anybody else,” head coach Bob Huggins said. “He’s really good at what he does.”
There’s some truth in that, too. Tshiebwe understands what he can do which is rebound the basketball and score around the goal and doesn’t get out of his element. He has expanded some of his range of his jump shot but doesn’t find himself caught up in what many young players do by getting out of his comfort zone. It seems like an easy battle, but, it’s far from it.
“You don’t have to worry about him going out and dribbling it between his legs and losing it or jacking up threes like some guys in his situation would do,” Huggins said.
The next phase is getting Tshiebwe to coexist on the floor with fellow big Derek Culver, all while improving on the defensive end where it’s easy to see how a freshman could experience lapses. That stuff will come as Tshiebwe continues to improve his understanding at this level.
It’s an understanding that is still blossoming in large part because of his lack of experience in organized basketball after just picking up the game around five years ago. And that fact alone screams to the potential that Tshiebwe has in the game as he continues to improve and understand what he can eventually become as he develops.
It certainly helps matters that he knows all-too-well his strengths and how to use them.
“Oscar knows who he is and he’s happy with who he is. And he’s pretty damn good at what he is,” Huggins said.
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